Monday, December 23, 2013

Migrant body seeks end to religious discrimination by schools

An advocacy organisation for migrants has called
for a change in the law to prevent schools giving preferential access to
children of certain religions.

The Integration Centre published a report, which looks the main roadblocks to immigrant integration in the Ireland.

There
was an “accelerating trend” where one school in an area is becoming a
migrant school while the other is becoming the “Irish Catholic” school,
chief executive Killian Forde said.

Section 7 of the Equal Status Act “needs to
be amended” to prevent schools giving “preferential treatment to
students on the basis of their religion”, Mr Forde said. Section 7
allows schools to discriminate on the grounds of religion if necessary
to protect their ethos.

The State has an “ad hoc approach to patronage”and the organisation is “concerned about how schooling is evolving” , he said.

In
a submission to the Department of Education earlier this month,
Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said that denominational schools
should no longer have the right to discriminate in favour of enrolling
children on the basis of their religion.

The Roadmap to Integration report also calls for a more efficient racism monitoring system to be put in place by the Garda.

Recent
reports by migrant NGOs have highlighted the increase in the number of
racist incidents recorded . “What we see is the levels of racism are
increasing across the board.

They are still largely verbal. But they
will become actioned into more maligned types of racism,” Mr Forde said.

Mr Forde said there was a “legislative gap” as the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act was not “comprehensive enough”.

He
also wanted to see “enhanced sentencing” for racist crime and a “clear
definition of a hate crime” . “Racism needs to be introduced as an
aggravating factor in sentencing,” he said.

The
report also welcomes several policy changes impacting on migrants over
the past year.

One positive change in education policy was the
abolishment of waiting lists which “puts newcomer students at a
disadvantage in urban areas”.

Minister for
Education Ruairí Quinn published the general scheme of the Education
(Admissions to Schools) Bill in September, to provide a new regulatory
framework for school enrolment procedures and to provide a new appeals
mechanism.

The organisation also hopes that the
recent lifting of the Garda recruitment embargo will see more members of
new communities joining the force.

The increase in “foreign-born”
candidates for next year’s election was another “positive trend” is also
noted by the report.